Google ad account suspensions triple to 5.6 million

Google suspended 5.6 million advertiser accounts in 2021 for “egregious policy violations”, more than triple (229%) that of the previous year’s 1.7 million ad account suspensions.

The online search engine and advertising behemoth also blocked and removed 3.4 billion ads in 2021, according to its 2021 Ad Safety Report.

The company additionally restricted 5.7 billion ads with content that is “sometimes legally or culturally sensitive”.

A spokesman for Google elaborated that while their policies on ad removal and restriction are set globally, the company has always required advertisers to comply with local law.

The vast majority of the 1.7 billion pages that Google took action against were due to sexual content (1.27 billion pages).

The data covers removals from Google’s network that include Search, Display, and YouTube ads.

In a blog post, Google underlined steps it took in 2021 that it says allows the company to “stay ahead of potential threats”, such as introducing a multi-strike system for repeat policy violations and adding or updating 30 policies or restrictions for advertisers and publishers, such as a policy prohibiting claims that promote climate change denial.

Though the report covers data from 2021 only, Google also noted that on top of pausing the “majority” of its commercial activities in Russia across their products, they have also blocked over eight million ads related to the war in Ukraine and separately removed ads from more than 60 state-funded media sites across their platforms.

Despite Google’s efforts, programmatic advertising is still contributing to sites that spread Russian propaganda against Ukraine, as Steven Brill and L Gordon Crovitz recently described in an interview with The Media Leader.

This article has been updated to reflect comment from Google.